I don’t know what inspires ideas in other writers, but I gather a lot of my writing thoughts and inspiration from walking. I live in the Forest of Dean, so I’m surrounded by beautiful places in which to walk, usually with my wife. Yesterday, we decided to visit a local spot of significance, Symonds Yat, a small village that straddles the River Wye. There’s a viewpoint high on the hill above the houses, overlooking three counties. It’s a popular destination.

We walked there along the banks of the river initially and then took to some rather tortuous paths leading up to the viewpoint, where a small café supplies food and drinks, a necessity after we’d walked the 4.5 miles to reach it. On the way, we’d passed a field full of tents being erected for a wedding, but the object that caused us to stop and stare was a fallen tree that had been cleverly envisaged as a large crocodile emerging from the riverbank. As a subject, it has nothing to do with the story I’m currently writing, but it was a spur to imagination. Such natural sculptures are surprisingly common here; trees, after all, have limbs and can often appear as something other than their actual selves. And it was this quality of nature as inspiration for imagination that caught my attention. A character in the work is a photographer, so I was able to use the inspiration to further the work in progress.

The walk back added more distance, and we covered a total of 9.5 miles, which, as I’m 75, meant I was pretty knackered by the time we reached home. But the refreshed spirit and mental stimulus of that exercise within nature moved me to write more today. I last reported on progress in a post titled ‘After the Research‘, when the words totalled 11,749 words in 6 chapters. That was on 15^th July. I’ve tried to write each day since, of course. And today I’ve reached 32,427 words in 15 chapters.

I’d love to know what inspires your writing, and what means you use to stimulate your imagination. You can answer in the comments section, if you wish.